Publications of the Research Unit Labour Markets and Social Insurance

  1. Refereed Journal // 2025

    German Long-Term Health Insurance: Theory Meets Evidence

    German long-term health insurance (GLTHI) represents the largest market for private long-term health insurance contracts in the world. We show that GLTHI’s contract design coincides with the optimal dynamic…

  2. Refereed Journal // 2025

    Computers as Stepping Stones? Technological Change and Equality of Labor Market Opportunities

    This  paper  analyzes  whether  technological  change  improves  equality  of  labormarket opportunities by increasing the returns to skills relative to the returns toparental background.  We find that in…

  3. Refereed Journal // 2025

    Birth Cohort Size Variation and the Estimation of Class Size Effects

    We show that in school systems with grade retention or redshirting birth cohort size is negatively related to the grade-level share of students who are too old for their grade. This compositional effect gives…

  4. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 24-071 // 2024

    The Deadly Consequences of Labor Scarcity: Evidence From Hospitals

    Healthcare systems worldwide face increasing nurse shortages, but the consequences remain poorly understood. This paper studies how nurse scarcity in hospitals affects care provision and patient health. I…

  5. Refereed Journal // 2024

    Analyse der Einkommens- und Beschäftigungswirkungen einer Einführung des CDU-Konzepts der „Aktiv-Rente“

    Im September 2023 stellte die CDU das Konzept der „Aktiv-Rente“ vor. Die Idee dahinter ist, den Arbeitsverdienst von Rentnerinnen und Rentnern, die neben dem Bezug einer gesetzlichen Rente eine bezahlte…

  6. Refereed Journal // 2024

    Cut Off from New Competition: Threat of Entry and Quality of Primary Care

    We study how the threat of entry affects service quantity and quality of general practitioners (GPs). We leverage Germany’s needs-based primary care planning system, in which the likelihood of new GPs reduces by…

  7. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 24-076 // 2024

    Access, Achievements, and Aspirations: The Impacts of School Tracking on Student Outcomes

    Though the use of tracking policies to stratify students is commonplace, evidence concerning the effects of ability-based tracking on student performance is mixed. Using rich data from the Hungarian secondary…